HM3: Settings

I'm going to be moving on to various background or setting elements tomorrow, so if you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments here. I'm talking about various props such as chairs, tables, flooring, background walls, doors, fields of lava, that kind of thing, items that would surround your character and make it look as if there is an actual scene taking place. One such set will probably be word balloons, for instance.

Awesome! I figure everyone else is going to be giving you more fantastical recommendations, but I’m rather reality based in my developing.

Now, onto Mad Science! A victim strapped to a flat table for background, or said table tilted forward so that one may create a character strapped to it, questionable puddles and blood splatters of varying design, a workbench, a liquid and bubble filled jar we can put heads in, random beakers and vials as you see fit. (Scattered papers and some surgical tools like a nasty drill, scalpels, and a hypodermic needle would be appreciated.)

That library Timespike said above would be fantastic. Just a shelf of old-looking books to work with would be great, if not. (Perhaps an orderly shelf and a more randomly placed mismatched shelf for variety?) Any foliage that strikes your fancy, especially grass and trees. Roses! Like maybe that go up a trellis, but without that. A large Venus Flytrap would be cool too.

Maybe a saloon, bar, or tavern with some bottle and glass options. A grand piano and a violin with bow. A full ashtray. Quill pen. Arctic ice flow, with obligatory chunks of ice. Stair landing, with carved railing. A country porch, a city storefront, a bowl of fruit, and an elegant four-poster bed. Oh, and a trashcan!

A Victorian parlor would be quite nice to have. Or the mix and matches to accomplish. Like an ornate fireplace, small table set for tea or coffee, Persian rug on hardwood floor, high windows with elaborate curtains, antique globe on a stand. Here’s some seating:

An old style torture chamber.
A “Saw”/”Hostel” style of torture chamber.
An old, spooky graveyard.
A gallows.
A Frankenstein-type of lab.
A modern day lab.
A workshop.
A church.
A house like the place Norman Bates dwelled in “Psycho”.
A cave.
A tabletop (good for characters that can shrink).
A computer room.
An inner city back alley (complete with unconscious wino).
A birthday party.
A rave.
A bar (a real dive).
An underground parking lot.
The inside of a rat-infested abandoned building.
An old,run-down barn.
A tornado.
The ocean floor.
A jungle.
A scientifically advanced futuristic city.
A dystopian city.
A pool hall.
A brothel (both old and new would be nice).
An old western saloon.
A crater from a meteor impact.
Arsenals (modern day, various times in history, etc).
Pyramids (Egyptian and South American, inside and out).
A museum.
A drive-in theater.
A walk-in theater.
A drive-in restaraunt.
A meat locker.
Icebergs.
Theater stages (old and new).
A circus.
A carnival.
A shooting gallery.
A morgue.
A police line-up.
A jail cell.
The inside of a prison.
Battlefields (WW1&2, Napoleonic, Revolutionary, Civil War, Vietnam, etc.).
Various weather conditions (snow,rain, etc.).
Military bases from various wars.
A terrorist camp.
A giant dartboard (complete with giant darts).
A basement.
A bomb shelter.
A mouse trap.
A black hole/time vortex thingy.
The mouth of a Lovecraftian type of leviathan.
A doctor’s examination room.
A space station.
A launch pad.
Inside the blood stream.
A man-made tunnel.
A magician’s prop room.
A greenhouse.
A field of solar energy collectors.
A gothic castle.
An exploding planet.
Restless, hungry souls of the dead.
Groups of various animals hunting (wolves, vampire bats, men with tracking dogs, etc.).
A burning skyscrapper.
A “Cool Hand Luke” type of chain gang.
Various sports fields (baseball diamond, football field, etc.).
A luxury hotel.
A fleabag motel.

I’m weird. I *like* what I’ve been doing–just a gradient background and a name. It looks more like a trading card, which is the look I like. So it’s not going to get me as many Finalist nods. I don’t care; I like what I’m doing. 🙂

I actually really think most of Danny’s ideas are pretty good, too. Some of them are vague enough to be accomplished by putting pieces together ourselves, but the others would be neat to have pre-made. Especially the police line up background. We can make rogue gallery mugshots with that!

An underwater scene. On that subject if you get the time could you put in a shark companion and a shark tail in the tail section to go with the two shark heads? The shark companion could also help with the underwater scenes.

And have many different elements to create backgrounds (different phases of the moon, the sun, a couple of different clouds, some mountains with and without snow, trees, bushes, some floors and paths, walls, doors windows, buildings, towers, etc…

This way each item can have 2 colors. A background made with 5 items could have up to 10 colors (plus the line colors).

There have been some really impressive backgrounds in the contests. By having separated backgrounds items, it would be way easier to create that kind of stuff (and even crazier things).

Man, some good ideas here. As much as possible I want to break things into pieces so you can a) mix and match and b) you can get a setting that’s more than two (three now with lines) colors. That was a big problem with the 2.x settings, you couldn’t color enough to make them look even vaguely normal.

And yes, anything I include will hopefully be better, although I do recall liking that one interior D&D style tavern a lot. That was a ton of work and I am still pretty happy with the way it looks.

Jeff, should I have included pictures again for other stuff? I was in a hurry earlier, but want to help as much as possible. Google image search fu gives me something to do with my time and Solander’s suggestions reminded me how I didn’t…I feel like if I’m going to goof off, I might as well save you some source picture finding trouble.

A lot of good suggestions, already…
The “Gun ship” {Battleship} pictured is nice, but I think a close-up, of standing on the deck, alongside the (really BIG) turrets would be cooler!
The “Gun Turret” is a good idea, too, but a quad Bofors might be better (40mm Anti-aircraft gun mount).
Oh, and version 2.5 already HAS Underwater/ Atlantis backgrounds… {Sketched, not photographic, I’ll admit, but I’ve used them before}

@William A. Peterson: When I suggested Atlantis, I should have specified Atlantis before the fall. In my mind, I can see large buildings (Egyptian pyramids meet Frank Loyd Wright meet the Twin Towers) and, of course, in the background would be the ginormous power crystal Edgar Cayce talked about.

The thing you guys need to remember is just that the setting has to be something the figure looks like it’d be standing in, on, or in front of from the proper perspective, which limits things somewhat.

This is a picture of mine that could potentially be used as reference for a background, it’s the office/study of Captain Thorn, who you might remember from one of the past contests. I give you full permission to copy it as you wish. Also, I’d like to see some sort of ruined temple, also a “gold pit” type place, like the sort you’d see Uncle Scrooge McDuck in.

@BiffBiffley (#60): The next time that happens, just go to the Transform tab and choose the “All Items” radio button. Then use the arrow buttons over on the right to move your figure around to where you want it.

This isn’t a settings suggestion, I just wanted to make sure that there were more boots coming in the future. Specifically, the knee-high suit of armor boots that were in the hm 2.5; they are essential to a number of my characters.

On that note, I think more knee-high boots and knee guards/plating would be a good idea.